Vince D’Adamo: What did you enjoy most about competing in athletics throughout your life?
Dominic Riebli: Competition serves as the best motivator to improve your life. Things always seemed to flow better when I was involved in sport. In college, I got better grades in-season than out. I needed the structure and pressure to perform. After college, there were so few opportunities exist to compete. I consider myself blessed to have had a 14 year career playing rugby. Since my retirement three years ago, I've found it much harder to motivate myself to get to the gym or do the extra work to keep myself fit and strong. I learned that "training" is much easier than "working-out."
D’Adamo: What have you been doing since graduating from high school?
Riebli: I got recruited to play football at Columbia University in New York City. Though I don't have a lot of fond memories of the school itself (my politics didn't exactly mesh with the majority of the student body), I'm proud of what I accomplished as a member of the football team. In my freshman year, we recorded the first winning record since the 1960's. My junior year saw the best record since the 1908 Rose Bowl Championship team. I received Academic All-Ivy honors in my senior year.
After graduating, I took up rugby and quickly fell in love with it. I started with Pasadena Rugby Football Club for the first couple years and then Santa Monica Rugby Club for the last 12 seasons. In that span we won back-to-back Division I national championships, I played a season for Eastern Suburbs in New South Wales, Australia, and got into the USARFU Eagles pool in 2001. I keep up with the Club in a management capacity and now coach my eldest son in U8s touch rugby.
During the national championship runs, I had the good fortune to meet a wonderful woman named Jennifer Moore. She lived in Walnut Creek, I was in Los Angeles, so we dated long distance for a year. At some point, one of us needed to move and we agreed that she would be the one. We've been married for nine years and have four beautiful children. Outside of sports and family, I do licensing for CBS Television.
D’Adamo: What was your favorite class at Justin-Siena High?
Riebli: Bob Morrish's English class. I'm the youngest of four and my eldest brother, A.J., had a very close relationship with Mr. Morrish. I had a lot to live up to but I also knew the inside jokes. I still recall the day that he literally performed a scene from "The Tempest" during a particularly heavy rain storm.
D’Adamo: What was your favorite athletic moment at Justin-Siena High?
Riebli: Winning the SCAL Championship in basketball my senior year. It was the only league title I won in my scholastic career. Of course, that joy was offset by losing to Colfax in the opening round of the playoffs. I still have nightmares about missing the opening layup in that game.
Tony Alvaro ranks right up there with some of the best coaches I've ever had. I was discussing this with fellow JSHS alum Mike Kramer a few months back: Tony was right about so many things that he said about us; we were just too naive or self-involved to recognize it. He called us "valley boys" and wanted more than anything for us to be tough. We never took it as the put-down he intended because we knew that we played hard. We confused playing hard with playing tough. They're very different things - tough and hard - but we didn't understand it at the time. I'd like to think I eventually became the tough player he'd always hoped for; at least, I have several scars to support my case.
D’Adamo: How much do you feel you have grown personally since graduating from high school and how much of that do you trace to athletics?
Riebli: The biggest thing was shifting my psychology from "playing not to lose" to "playing to win." I spent most of my life playing not to lose and while it motivated me to accomplish some admirable things, it kept me from accomplishing much more. When you play to win, you're willing to take the risks that you wouldn't take otherwise. You become a more confident player and person. Your teammates and associates pick up on it. Now, whether they accept it is an entirely different matter.
D’Adamo: Within your family, who have been the most influential people?
Riebli: My eldest brother, A.J. Without him, Columbia wouldn't have recruited me. He put my highlight reel together back in the days of VCR editing. He introduced me to rugby. It was such a great fit for me.
D’Adamo: Name a historical figure, dead or alive, in or out of sports you would most like to meet.
Riebli: I regret not having known about William F. Buckley and Fr. Richard John Neuhaus while I lived in NYC. I became a loyal reader of National Review in my mid-20's, in the waning years of WFB's life. In my mind's eye, I surely could've done an internship there while I was an undergrad. I feel the same about Fr. Neuhaus and First Things magazine. Two great Catholic men in my city for four years and I completely whiffed.
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